Date and site to be announced in early February! As many of you know, the NCAA has changed the recruiting calendar, and we are now waiting for all of the tournaments to pick their dates and sites. We will then announce COACHING U LIVE 2012 details. We have already lined up a great staff and [...]
Corporate Locker Room
Two Pains
In the sports world, the corporate world, in our personal lives, in a coach’s career — there will always be times when we have to choose between the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The Pain of Discipline Being disciplined is a great characteristic to have, but a difficult one to maintain over [...]
Bring Value to Yourself
As I look back on the good fortune I have had in my career (from a Graduate Assistant making $2,000 a year to an Assistant Coach with the 2008 NBA World Champions) I keep coming back to a theme: LEARNING and PERSONAL GROWTH. The ability to move up the ladder and improve your salary in [...]
Changes for 2010-11
We have just completed another successful year of our Kevin Eastman Basketball subscription service — our blog, NBA plays, and newsletters. Thanks to all of you who have subscribed to our service, or who have visited our site for the free content. Beginning in October, we will be making some changes to the site. One [...]
If it Ain’t Broke?
I know the saying goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But I actually believe when “it ain’t broke” you still have to evaluate it! I don’t think it’s best to just remain status quo because something is working well. It may be able to work better. I’m not saying to change for change’s [...]
Simple Question…Major Impact
This blog will be very short but has the potential to be very powerful. Here’s a challenge for you: Write down everything you would need to do or to be in order to be successful at your job. Now do those things everyday! Sometimes the best place to find the answers is inside our own [...]
Conviction
Learned the importance of having conviction when it comes to being a leader. This season Doc Rivers made a decision with about 40 games left in our season. He decided that we needed to be as healthy as possible if we had any chance of competing for an NBA title. So he sacrificed wins on [...]
George Steinbrenner and Coaching
I’ve read a number of articles on George Steinbrenner these past few days. We all know that he’s either loved or hated and not much in between, but we can learn a lot from his leadership practices. As with any person you study, you can learn what to do and what not to do. A [...]
Keep Eyes and Ears Open
I direct the Skills Academies for Nike and our goal is to hire the best teachers out there for these elite High School and College players. In doing that, it’s almost a mini clinic for me as I go around watching and listening to the different coaches at the different stations. A few observations about [...]
True Leadership
There are so many players in so many fields that want to be in a leadership position but don’t want to deal with the toughest part of leadership. To be an effective leader, you must be able to tell the truth. Sounds simple, but there are lots of factors that go with this statement. First [...]
Staff Construction
Putting together a staff requires a tremendous amount of thought. The staff you have is a big part of every Head Coach’s success. Here are some things about our staff that, I believe, make it one of the best around: Loyalty: We all believe in and truly want to see Doc be successful. Ego-less: We [...]
Resolve
The NBA Finals pits two teams that have made winning a championship a priority. It’s two groups that have come together and understand that any group of players can wear the same uniform, but only those who sacrifice their individual goals for the betterment of the group can be called a team! To get this [...]
We’re Not Getting Younger
After our series with Cleveland ended, Lebron James and Kevin Garnett got together near mid court to exchange some words of respect. We all know that Lebron has some big decisions ahead. One of the things Kevin said (I am paraphrasing here) to Lebron was that it’s hard at times to get your youth back. [...]
When Leadership is Needed
Leader: every team needs one (or more). With some teams, a leader never seems to appear. Other teams mistake having captains as having leaders. And some teams have players that want to be leaders but can’t. They simply haven’t been able to gain the trust it takes to lead. Players who want to be leaders [...]
Inspiration vs. Motivation
We can learn a lot from other coaches — how they operate, how they think, how they get their teams to accomplish what many thought was impossible. In particular, I found it very enlightening to follow Sean Payton (New Orleans Saints coach) in the papers and learn from articles written about him, his staff and [...]
